In 1998 the World's Cup soccer match will be held in France. The "Grand
Stade de France" is under construction in Saint-Denis at the
northeastern edge of the capital, amid a 7,000 hectare plain. The
plain, a highly industrialized area from the beginning of this century
(metallurgy, hydrocarbons), has lost its substance, the industries have
fled along with the jobs. Only those who had no other choice remained.
The landscape is dotted with industrial wastelands. One one of them,
"Le Cornillon," where the stadium is being built, lived a small
community of so-called homeless people. Some had been there for
thirteen years. For almost all of them this was no temporary measure;
they had settled in. A decision had been taken. Huts were constructed,
life was organized alone or with others, a dignified life of one's own,
every day. For over two years, from the official announcement of the
construction of the stadium on November 3, 1993, to the final expulsion
in May, 1995, through the cycle of the seasons, on the terrain, I
undertook a patient photographic work in which I mingled my own intimacy
with that of the territory and with the intimate life that had succeeded
in constructing this precarious community.